Saturday, March 21, 2015

"MEXICO CITY – Mexico isn’t living up to its potential when it comes to life-saving organ transplants that thousands of Mexicans need in order to continue living, said the Carlos Slim Foundation.

The foundation launched the 2015 “Héroes por la Vida” (Heroes for Life) campaign last month in a bid to encourage more Mexicans to talk with their families about donating their organs in the unfortunate event of their death.

“Today in Mexico, 19,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant,” Vanessa Slim de Hajj said at the campaign launch. “This number is growing every day, and the number of donors in our country is only 3.6 people for every 1,000.”

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To put things into perspective, consider that in Spain, an international leader in transplants from cadavers, 36 of every 1,000 people are organ do- nors, 10 times the rate in Mexico. The national rate of postmortem trans- plants is less than many other Latin American countries as well.

“This campaign calls on Mexicans to be everyday heroes,” Slim said. “Today we can make a simple decision to save lives.”

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On the campaign website (www.heroesporlavida.org), volunteers can find information about how to register as a donor and order a donor card. However, the volunteer card isn’t a legally binding document and the ultimate decision falls to family as to whether their loved-one’s organs will be used to save lives.
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